Sample problem
A population of guppies has an average swimming speed of 80 mm/s, individuals having a mean of 110 survived a flood to be parents of the next generation; their offspring had a mean of 90 mm/s. Calculate the realized heritability.
Recall that R = h2S. Therefore, h2 = R/S where S (selection) = mean after selection - mean before selection, R (response) = mean of offspring generation - mean of previous generation
S = 110 mm/s - 80 mm/s = 30 mm/s
R = 90 mm/s - 80 mm/s = 10 mm/s
Therefore, h2 = 10 / 30 = 0.33